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February 22, 2004
The Transfiguration of Our Lord
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Pastor Joel Zank

LET LIGHT SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS

(2 Corinthians 4:3?6) And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

In Christ Jesus whose face beams with the glory of God's love, dear fellow redeemed,

If the gospel of Jesus is so powerful, why don't all people worship him as Lord? Why do only a third of the earth's inhabitants call themselves Christian? And for that matter, if the gospel's so powerful, why are there so many different branches of Christianity? Why don't all Christians teach and believe the same things? You've heard these questions before. Maybe you've even asked them. They are certainly not new questions. They've been around for long time, so long in fact that even the Apostle Paul was familiar with them. But when these questions were put to Paul, I'm afraid they came to him in the form of accusations. It was suggested that there was something wrong with the gospel Paul preached and with the way he preached it. So Paul takes up this issue in his second letter to the Corinthians, making it very clear that there is absolutely nothing wrong with his gospel or his preaching. The real problem lies elsewhere, a problem that is still with us today, a problem that you and I will want to pray about; and Paul gives us the very words we can pray, words which God once spoke as a powerful command, words which we speak as a humble plea: LET LIGHT SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS: 1) for the blind; 2) through our preaching; 3) in our hearts.

As a world missionary it was not possible for Paul to remain in any one place for very long, but he did manage to stay in Corinth for nearly a year and a half, preaching the good news of Christ to Jews and non-Jews alike. But after leaving the church in that city to carry out his work elsewhere, other missionaries came to Corinth boasting that they had a better, more effective message than Paul's. You can just imagine the sorts of things they might have promised. Corinth was the 4th largest city in the Roman Empire with a population of a quarter of a million citizens. Paul's message had brought only a small fraction of those many people into the church. These new "super apostles", as they would come to be known suggested that they could do so much more for the Corinthian congregation. It wasn't long and these newcomers found support among the members of the church who no doubt wanted to know what Paul had to say for himself and his message. Why had Paul's gospel been so "ineffective"?

How often that same question is raised today. With so-called "mega churches" popping up all over the country we may be tempted to turn our sights on Mount Olive and our Wisconsin Synod and wonder aloud, "What's wrong with our gospel? Why isn't it attracting more people?" Now obviously as a Christian congregation we should be interested in growing, but before we become critical of our message, we need to keep in mind what Paul has to say about this. He writes: "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing" (2 Corinthians 4:3).

Paul concedes that there are definitely people who cannot see the Bible's good news about Jesus as something great and glorious. But if and when this happens, it is not because God wants it to happen or because his gospel lacks power. This happens only because those who are perishing choose to pin their hopes for happiness on another god. Paul explains, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Jesus once said: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). All people are born in sin's darkness, unable to see or make for themselves any escape from sin's power or punishment. There is no light at the end of sin's tunnel. Left to themselves sinners must stumble through the darkness of this world right into the outer darkness of hell.

But God has not left sinners to themselves. Instead he put on human flesh and blood and came to our world to save sinners in the person of Jesus. This is why Paul can say that Jesus is the "image of God." Since Christ is God in the flesh we human beings can look at and listen to him in the gospel and know exactly what our God is like. And what is he like? God is love! In fact his glory is nothing less than this wondrous love of his that sent Jesus to earth to live and die in the place of us sinners. This is the glory that Peter, James, and John witnessed on the mountain and this is glory that lights up the gospel of Christ.

But as Paul explained to the Corinthians and now to us, some people just don't see this light not because it isn't bright enough, but because they have been blinded by "the god of this age" who is the devil himself. Satan, of course, is not really a god, but he pretends to be, making promises he cannot keep. He promised Adam and Eve they would become gods if they ate the forbidden fruit. Instead, blinded by their greed and trusting Satan rather than their Creator, they became damned sinners. All these years later nothing has changed. If anything, Satan has gotten even better at deceiving people, convincing sinners the world over that turning to Christ will cause them to forfeit all the pleasure and fun life has to offer them. At the same time Satan plays on their pride, causing them to take great offense at the suggestion that they even need a Savior. After all, they haven't done anything so terrible. Blinded by these lies and others like them, billions upon billions of souls are perishing because they have no faith in Jesus. Pray for them my friends! Ask God to let light shine out of darkness for the blind in spirit that they may finally see Satan's lies for what they are, that they may repent of their sin, and that they may see in Jesus the glory of God's saving love that still reaches out to them no matter how often they have rejected or mocked his gospel.

And as you pray for such a miracle, pray that it be accomplished through us, that is, through the message we speak. Pray God to let light shine out of darkness through our preaching.

There is only one message in all the universe that turns hearts from unbelief to faith, from death to life. It is the message of Christ crucified for sin. Knowing this, the Apostle Paul writes, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5). It doesn't take long to figure out that those who came to Corinth with a message supposedly better than Paul's, must have corrupted the preaching of God's Word to such a degree, that they actually ended up promoting themselves rather than Christ. That same thing is still happening today. Walk into most Christian bookstores and you will find row upon row of books written by Christian authors who hope to grow the church, and though they may be very sincere in their efforts, they've managed to draw attention away from Jesus to themselves. Oh they use Scripture in their writings, but for the most part they portray the Bible as nothing more than a rulebook, filled with clear, concise, how to advice on nearly every topic known to man. Attend their seminars, follow their programs along with Scripture's rules and they promise that your marriages will be wonderful, your children will be angels, and your finances never better. But in all of this advice, precious little is said about the sin that is at the heart of all life's troubles, and even less is said about Jesus who takes away the sin of the world. As a result, thousands and thousands of people are trying to improve the human condition without the Savior's forgiveness and therefore without the love and power that forgiveness offers them to face all the challenges of life every day.

What does all this have to do with us? By God's grace we have the one message that makes an eternal difference in life. We need not be ashamed of it as I fear we so often are. Perhaps we hesitate to speak of sin and grace to people whose lives are falling apart because what we have to say to them seems to have so little to do with their troubles. But when we think this way, we couldn't be more wrong. It may very well be that we don't know how to fix their marriages or their finances. Maybe we can't talk them out of their fears or relieve their stress. But remember, it's not our mission in life to pass ourselves off as people having all the answers. We don't preach ourselves. Like Paul, we want to preach Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants who live for no other reason than to point others to him. There is no better way to serve our Savior and no better way to serve the people around us. No matter what troubles our family or friends may be experiencing, the most important thing they need to know is that they are sinners who have been rescued from sin's guilt and sin's punishment by Jesus. He is the solution to the biggest problem they will ever face. When they know and believe this, then they will also find Jesus to be their strength and help in every hour of need. Pray that God gives us wisdom to know this and courage to preach no one else but Jesus Christ as Lord. Let light shine out of darkness through our preaching! And here's one more prayer, let that light keep shining in our hearts.

The last verse of our text ties together so neatly all that Paul has told us: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). The fact that you and I know Jesus as Savior is nothing short of a miracle-a miracle worked by the same powerful Word that first brought light out of darkness on day one of creation. At the time of our birth our hearts were as black as night with sin. These hearts of ours were filled with love for evil and hatred for God. But in love that defies all explanation, God came to us and whispered in our ear the name of Jesus, and with that one word, God gave us eyes of faith to see his saving glory in the loving face of Christ. By the power of Jesus' name God replaced our sin-darkened hearts with new hearts filled with the light of his glorious Son. Now our hearts shine with the holiness of Christ. Now they trust only in his payment for sin, and now these hearts of ours beat with the power of God's love. All this has become ours not because we deserve it or even because we have resisted it less than the world around us. No, we can take credit for who we are or for what we believe. God's grace alone has done all this.

So as we pray that God keep showing us his grace, we need have no doubt that he will. The grace that found us is the same grace that will keep us the people of God. And as we pray that God show this grace to others, here too we need not doubt his desire or his ability to save. His grace plays no favorites. It makes its appeal to all who hear the name of Jesus. And so, as often as we speak that powerful name, as often as we tell of his love for sinners, and as often as we proclaim his blood-bought forgiveness to the people around us, the grace of God will be at work, revealing his glory in the face of Christ and causing his saving light to shine out of sin's darkness, always and everywhere, for Jesus' sake. Amen.